There is always a simple Christmas story that tugs at the heartstrings, and this is one of them.

Palma “Penny” Spencer is the owner of JLH, which stands for Just Like Home, an assisted living facility at 87 Ohio St. in Bangor.

She called last week to tell us how very grateful she is to some delightful young people who brought the true spirit of Christmas into her home.

Spencer, you see, had spent a great deal of time on the telephone in the days leading up to Christmas, searching in vain for people to come in and sing carols for the residents, who are unable to leave the facility.

“I called everywhere,” she said. “There were just no groups available.

“Some people suggested we attend their holiday concerts, which, of course, we couldn’t do. Others said they just didn’t have the time,” said Spencer.

“I wondered whatever happened to carolers,” she said.

“I was trying so hard to just find some nice, old-fashioned carolers who might just come in and stand in the middle of the living room and sing,” she said.

Finally, a friend suggested contacting Bangor Baptist Church. It was there that Spencer found what she was looking for.

Adrienne Chandler, superintendent of the Bangor Baptist Sunday School, made a few telephone calls, got a group together, and on Friday, Dec. 23, three adults and several young people appeared at the JLH front door.

“They came in and walked around the house and stopped in every room and sang to everyone,” Spencer said.

She was especially touched with the music that emanated from the room of one woman, on the second floor, who couldn’t get out of bed.

“All the kids got into her room,” Spencer said, “and she grabbed my hand and said, ‘It’s Christmas.'”

Spencer said the children were “just wonderful.”

“They were great,” she said. “They went in each room and sang their hearts out. … They made the ladies so happy.”

The day was complete with homemade cookies and hot chocolate – small thanks, indeed, from JLH residents, who range in age from the 80s to 90s, for the special gift they received from the children of Bangor Baptist.

“I thank them so much,” Spencer said.

Writing on behalf of the Bangor Area Rotary Club, Rob Reeves informs readers that Bangor Rotary anticipates making grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 to one or more programs and-or organizations that benefit children in greater Bangor.

Proposals from local nonprofit organizations that would like to be considered as one of the recipients of the grants have until Friday, Jan. 20, to make an application.

Details and guidelines for applying for one of these grants can be found at www.bangorrotary.org.

I’m not exactly sure how a letter from Marti Morris of Beaver, Utah, made its way to my desk because it’s addressed to the VFW in Bangor and was marked “return to sender.”

But I have it, and here’s her story, which she addressed to “Dear Daily News.”

When the letter came back to her for “improper addressing,” Morris wrote, “I called your city office for help.

“A woman working at the city office suggested I write to you” (meaning the BDN) because the woman believed the letter would make its way into the paper and “the whole community could see it.”

Her letter is, in fact, two letters: The first the one she addressed to VFW members, and the second to the BDN, but both, really, are about our Maine Troop Greeters!

Morris explained that her son left for Iraq on June 25, a day she described as “a gut-wrenching combination of pride and fear.”

She was quite aware that it “would be a long time until I heard his voice or saw his face again.”

So you can imagine her surprise when he called, “that evening, from Bangor, Maine,” she wrote.

“He was so excited to be able to call his sweetheart bride and his parents.

“He was so touched to be part of your wonderful show of support for them,” she added.

“He is so very proud to be serving in the National Guard, even though his education has been interrupted and he has left a fairly new bride.”

To everyone who helped make this family’s difficult separation slightly less painful than it might have been, Marti Morris says “thank you.”

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.